What if you don’t have a recommendation or action to share?

What if you don’t have a recommendation or action to share?

by | - Articulate your Answer (So What), - Grouping storylines, 2 - Develop your storyline, Options

Have you wondered how to use a storyline when you don't have a recommendation or an action to share?

One of my clients asked me this terrific question during a workshop last week, and I thought it worth unpacking for you also.

The easiest way to think about this is to view the ‘so what' as a point of view rather than always being a recommendation or an action. You could do that two ways, which I have unpacked below.

Sharing your findings to stimulate a discussion

Context – We have been analysing a supermarket full of breakfast options to decide which one suits us best.

Trigger – We are now ready to share our findings.

Question – What did you find?

So What – All available options have sufficient merit, making it difficult to choose one over another.

Sub question – why is that true?

Nutrigrain cereal offers a higher carb, low protein option that includes plenty of nutrients

  • includes lots of vitamins and minerals
  • offers plenty of fibre
  • is low in fat
  • includes a moderate amount of sugar

Porridge is lower carb but not as tasty or high in protein
  • includes lots of vitamins and minerals
  • offers plenty of fibre
  • is low in fat and can lower cholesterol
  • is low in sugar


Omelettes are high in protein but potentially high in fat

  • includes lots of vitamins and minerals, especially if vegetables are included
  • offers plenty of fibre when vegetables are included
  • is higher in fat and cholesterol than the others
  • has virtually no sugar



Explicitly asking for help to decide which is best

The difference between this option and the previous one lies in the trigger and the so what. The rest of the story remains almost the same. I have adjusted the tense slightly to reflect the difference in the sub question that ‘falls out' of the so what, but kept the supporting points the same.

Context – We have been analysing a supermarket full of breakfast options so we can decide which one suits us best.

Trigger – We need your help to decide which one is best.

Question – How can I help?

So what – Please help us weigh up these equally suitable breakfast options so we can decide which one to choose.

Sub question – what options?

Nutrigrain cereal, which offers a higher carb, low protein option that includes plenty of nutrients

  • includes lots of vitamins and minerals
  • offers plenty of fibre
  • is low in fat
  • includes a moderate amount of sugar


Porridge, which is lower carb but not as tasty or high in protein

  • includes lots of vitamins and minerals
  • offers plenty of fibre
  • is low in fat and can lower cholesterol
  • is low in sugar


Omelettes, which are high in protein but potentially high in fat

  • includes lots of vitamins and minerals, especially if vegetables are included
  • offers plenty of fibre when vegetables are included
  • is higher in fat and cholesterol than the others
  • has virtually no sugar


You would then follow on to outline your reasoning about each of the options to support a healthy discussion around your analysis.

Please note that we have not provided a list of pros and cons. We have listed how each breakfast option stacks up against key criteria.

I hope that helps. More next week.

Kind regards,
Davina

PS – Do check out the podcast series inside the portal. We have now uploaded all that we have recorded so you have early access. I think you will enjoy the discussions.

 

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Why not to use tables alone when recommending which option to use

Why not to use tables alone when recommending which option to use

by | - Articulate your Answer (So What), - Problem Solving, - Synthesis, Options

When I heard that NASA spent millions of dollars trying to find a ball point pen that would withstand the challenges of space I didn't query it too much.

Until I heard that the Russians went with a pencil, that is.

What's wrong here?

While not being present in either decision-making process, it highlights the value of thinking hard before proceeding.

It might also point to the value of pushing ourselves to think through options, which was the topic of a client discussion this week.

We observed that providing a table with ticks and crosses to discuss a series of options is, although common, inadequate. It requires the audience to interpret the table rather than you sharing your insights about what it means.

So, this week I offer a framework to help you develop and chunk your criteria so you can avoid leaving your insights ‘on the table', if you'll pardon my pun.

I offer three steps to employ this idea:

  1. Familiarise yourself with the framework
  2. Think about how to use it
  3. Refer to an example.


Familiarise yourself with the framework. Here are the four considerations that I think need to be canvassed when evaluating options for solving problems:

Strategy – Does this option help us deliver against our strategy? If so, how? If not, why not?

Return – Does this option help us deliver a strong return? ‘Return' might be considered many ways. It might be purely a financial measure, or alternatively consider softer issues such as social or environmental returns.

Practicality – Is this option easy, or perhaps even possible, for us to implement?

Risks – Does this option raise risks that will be hard for us to mitigate against? Or not?

 

Think about how to use it. As with all frameworks, we can use them to generate and to evaluate sets of ideas by helping us identify and fill gaps in our thinking.

Frameworks such as this stimulate us to ask whether we have covered all relevant issues, and whether we have done so well or not.

It is then up to us to measure our options against each criteria, draw out what this means for our decision making and make appropriate recommendations.

The framework helps you prioritise each of your criteria so you can calibrate your tradeoffs more effectively.

Refer to an example. This is a set of criteria for evaluating a set of options relating to a case study, which we explored in a program MasterClass some time ago.

The class focused around options for solving a disagreement about the best way to run races close to the daylight savings changeover when days are short.

Note how I have grouped the different criteria that emerged from the the discussion about the options.

In doing so, the tradeoffs become apparent given the first and third options have the same number of ticks and crosses each.

This then leads us to make a tradeoff between return and strategy: which one is more important?

That way we can decide which option is better. 

 

I hope that helps. More next week.

Davina

PS – this follows on neatly from last week's email about pros and cons (click here to read the post).